The Roman Governorsfrom Josephus: The Essential Works by
Paul L. Maier

Archelaus mourned his father for seven days,
and then feasted the people, according to the custom of the Jews. Addressing
the crowds from a golden throne, he thanked them for their allegiance. He said
he would not take on himself the authority of king until Caesar ratified
Herod's will, but after that he would be kinder to them than his father had
been.

Pleased by Archelaus' speech, the people quickly put his good
intentions to the test by asking for various favors. Some wanted the taxes
reduced, while others begged him to release the prisoners. In order to gain the
good will of the people, Archelaus promised to attend to these requests.

Toward evening, great crowds of people who had been dissatisfied under
Herod's reign gathered. They mourned those whom Herod had put to death for
cutting down the golden eagle from the gate of the temple. They cried out that
Herod's advisers should be put to death, and that the high priest he appointed
be deprived of his office. Archelaus was provoked by these clamors, but tried
to quiet them in a peaceful manner. He sent an officer to pacify the mob, but
they threw stones at him.

It was now the feast of the Passover, and
multitudes came to Jerusalem from the country, among whom the rioters began to
spread sedition. Fearing rebellion, Archelaus sent a tribune with a cohort to
seize the leaders of the insurrection. But they stoned the soldiers, killing
many of them, though a few escaped, including the wounded tribune. Archelaus
then sent his army against them, and they killed about 3,000 of the rioters,
driving the rest into the hills. Archelaus' heralds now commanded everyone to
return to his own home, and they all withdrew without finishing the festival.

Archelaus, accompanied by Nicolas, set out for Rome together with
many of the royal family. They went supposedly to aid Archelaus in securing the
throne, but in reality to protest the massacre at the temple. His younger
brother, Antipas. had also gone to Rome to claim the crown on the basis of
Herod's will, in which he was made heir, rather than the codicil. Many of the
relatives supported him out of hatred for Archelaus.

At Caesarea,
Archelaus met Sabinus, the procurator of Syria, who had set out for Judea to
take charge of Herod's property. But Varus, governor of Syria, interposed, and
Sabinus agreed to remain at Caesarea and leave Archelaus in possession of the
treasures and fortresses of Judea until a decision had been made at Rome. But
no sooner had Varus gone to Antioch and Archelaus set sail for Rome, than
Sabinus hurried to Jerusalem. He seized the palace, commanded the treasury
officials to give an accounting, and tried to obtain possession of the
fortresses. However, everyone remained faithful to Archelaus' instructions and
refused to obey any orders unless they came from Rome.

Revolt in Jerusalem

Meanwhile, Archelaus and Antipas disputed
their rights to the crown before Caesar. Nicolas of Damascus supported
Archelaus successfully enough to incline Caesar to confirm Archelaus' rule.
Before Caesar came to a decision, however, news came that Judea was in
rebellion. The feast of Pentecost had arrived, and the Jews had gathered to
avenge the greed of Sabinus. Dividing themselves into three groups, they camped
on the north, south, and west of the temple, and pro-ceeded to besiege the
Romans. Frightened, Sabinus sent to Varus for help, seized Phasael, the highest
tower, and signaled his troops to attack the Jews. The Jews had mounted the
roofs of the porticoes surrounding the temple courts, and from there hurled
stones on their enemies. The Romans set fire to the porticoes, and the Jews
were either burned alive or slaughtered by the enemy when they attempted to
retreat. The Romans then broke into the sacred treasury, and the soldiers stole
a great part of it, while Sabinus took 400 talents for himself. Maddened by
this outrage, the Jews besieged Sabinus and his forces inside the palace.

Most of the royal troops deserted to join the Jewish besiegers, who
offered to let Sabinus and his men leave unharmed. Sabinus would gladly have
done so, but he was afraid to trust the Jews and so waited for help from Varus.

The whole country was without any government and erupted in violence.
Two thousand of Herod's army, who had been disbanded, followed his cousin
Achiabus in rebellion until driven into the hills. Judas, son of Ezekias the
bandit, plundered Galilee, while Simon, a slave of Herod, crowned himself king
and burned the royal palace in Jericho until he was caught and beheaded.
Athronges, a huge shepherd, also put on a diadem. With his burly brothers, he
conducted a guerilla campaign, and others also spread ruin and desolation over
the country.

Varus, fearful for the safety of the legion besieged in
Jerusalem, hurried to relieve Sabinus with two other legions, assisted by an
army under Aretas [IV], king of Arabia. Many cities were burned and sacked on
the way, especially by the Arabs. When Varus approached Jerusalem, the Jewish
forces besieging Sabinus quickly fled into the country and dispersed. The
inhabitants of the city then declared that they were not in revolt, but instead
blamed the multitudes who had come into the city to celebrate the festival.
Sabinus, ashamed to look Varus in the face, stole away to the seacoast. Varus
sent his troops across the country to capture those who had been involved in
the sedition, and crucified 2,000 of the ringleaders. But some 10,000 were
still gathered in Idumea.

Varus sent the Arabs home because he could
not restrain their excesses. With his own troops, he then marched against the
insurgents, who surrendered to him. He pardoned the common soldiers, but sent
the officers to Rome for trial. Having settled matters, Varus left a garrison
in Jerusalem and hurried back to Antioch.

Augustus Divides the
Kingdom

A delegation of Jews arrived in Rome at this time to ask
for the elimination of royal authority in Judea, and were supported by 8,000 of
the Jews in Rome, Caesar called together a council in the temple of Apollo to
hear the envoys, as well as Archelaus, Philip, his brother, and their
supporters.

The emissaries spoke first, and charged their former
king. Heron, with the greatest extortions and cruelties, claiming that under
him the Jews had endured the worst suffering since their captivity in Babylon.
Archelaus, they continued, had inaugurated his reign by slaughtering 3,000 Jews
in the temple precincts to prove he was not a bastard son of Herod. Therefore,
they petitioned Caesar to deliver them from kings and to annex their country to
Syria and let it be ruled by Roman governors. They would show how well they
could behave under moderate rulers.

Statue of Augustus as commander-in-chief (about 20
B.C.), addressing his troops. It was found at the Villa of Livia (Augustus'
wife), at Prima Porta on the Via Flaminia just north of Rome. The symbols on
the breastplate indicate Augustus' achievements of prosperity and peace for the
Empire (Vatican Museum).

Then Nicolas spoke for Archelaus and refuted
the charges against the kings, declaring the Jews to be rebellious and by
nature disobedient to their sovereigns. Having listened attentively to both
sides, Caesar dismissed the council. A few days later, he appointed Archelaus
not as king, but ethnarch of Judea, Idumea, and Samaria, promising to make him
king should he prove deserving. Antipas received Galilee and Perea, while
Philip obtained Batanea, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and Panias. Salome, Herod's
sister, received the government and revenues of several cities, and other
members of Herod's family inherited the bequests he had left them in his will.
Caesar divided the thousand talents which Herod had left him among Herod's
children, keeping for himself only a few items in honor of the deceased.

A young Jew later appeared in Rome, who pretended to be the prince
Alexander whom Herod had ordered to be killed. He looked very much like the
dead Alexander, and had been trained to act his part by a Jew who was well
acquainted with affairs at the Herodian court. He completely deceived the Jews
in Crete and Melos, who furnished him with money to go to Rome and claim the
Jewish throne. He explained his escape from death by claiming the executioners
had taken compassion on him and his brother Aristobulus, allowing them to
escape after substituting corpses resembling them. As soon as this impostor
arrived in Puteoli and Rome, the Jews joyously acclaimed him as the true
Alexander, and provided him with all the trappings of royalty.

Caesar, suspecting a cheat, sent one of his freedmen, Celadus, who had known
Alexander well, to conduct the youth into his presence. When Celadus saw the
pretender, he knew at once that this was not the real Alexander, because his
body was coarse and rough compared to Alexander's, which had been softener! by
luxury. He confronted him as an impostor, but promised that Caesar would spare
his life if he would point out the man who had concocted the scheme.1 The false Alexander agreed and went with
Celaclus to Caesar, identifying his instructor. Caesar was amused by the
affair, and, seeing that the pretender was a strong young fellow, he made him
an oarsman in one of his galleys. But he put to death the scoundrel who had
induced him.

Archelaus assumed the ethnarchy of Judea and splendidly
rebuilt the palace at Jericho, adding a palm tree plantation. But he
transgressed the law in marrying Glaphyra, Alexander's widow, for marrying a
brother's wife [unless she is childless] is abhorrent among Jews. Archelaus
also ruled with such cruelty that in the tenth year of his reign, both the Jews
and the Samaritans accused him before Caesar. After hearing his defense, Caesar
banished Archelaus to Vienne, a city in Gaul, and confiscated his property.

Before he had been summoned to Rome, Archelaus dreamed that ten thick
ears of wheat were being eaten by oxen, and no one could interpret the dream
except a certain Essene named Simon. He told Archelaus that the oxen signified
suffering; the ears the number of years in his reign, which was now at an end.
Five days later, Caesar's summons arrived.

Roman Judea

Judea now became a province, and Coponius, a Roman of the equestrian
order, was sent out as procurator with full authority, including administration
of capital punishment. Quirinius, a Roman senator of consular rank, was also
sent by Caesar to be governor of Syria and assessor of property there and in
Judea, where he was to sell Archelaus' estate. While the Jews reluctantly
agreed to register their property, a certain Judas of Gamala claimed that this
was tantamount to slavery, so he and a Pharisee named Saddok called for
revolution, starting a fourth philosophy which led to ruin. Let me describe the
various schools of thought among the Jews.

Excavations at Qumran, near the northwestern corner
of the Dead Sea, site of the Essene community which wrote and later hid the
famed "Dead Sea Scrolls." The scrolls were discovered by accident in the caves
of the Judean escarpment to the west (background).

The Pharisees regard
observance of their doctrine and commandments as of most importance, and they
believe that souls have power to survive death and receive rewards or
punishments. They are very influential among the townspeople, and all rites of
worship are performed according to their exposition.

The Sadducees
teach that the soul dies along with the body, and they observe no tradition
apart from the [written] laws. Whenever they assume office, however, they
submit to the formulas of the Pharisees, because the masses would not tolerate
them otherwise.

The Essenes believe in the
immortality of the soul and strive for righteousness, but they use a different
ritual of purification for their sacrifices and so are barred from the temple
sanctuary. The 4,000 in this sect hold their property in common, and do not
bring wives or slaves into the community, but live off by themselves.2 Always dressed in white, they do not change
their clothes until they are worn threadbare. They deem oil defiling, and
purify themselves in cold water. A candidate joins their order only after a
three-year probation, and they are also extraordinarily interested in ancient
writings. So strictly do they observe the Sabbath that they will not even
defecate on that day.

The hole in the rock near the center of the
photograph marks Cave 4 in the Judean escarpment overlooking Qumran, where some
of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.

The fourth philosophy [the Zealots'] agrees
with the Pharisees except that they have an overwhelming desire for liberty
with the conviction that God alone is their leader. They will easily endure any
sort of pain or death so long as they do not have to call man their master.
These, then, are the philosophies among the Jews.

Having liquidated
Archelaus' estate, Quirinius appointed Ananus, the son of Seth, as high
priest.3 Meanwhile, Herod Antipas and Philip
were administering their tetrarchies. Herod fortified Sepphoris, while Philip
improved Panias at the source of the Jordan and called it Caesarea [Philippi].
He also raised Bethsaida on Lake Gennesaritis [Sea of Galilee] to city status
by adding townspeople.

During the administration of Coponius in
Judea, the priests, as was their custom, threw open the gates of the temple at
midnight during Passover. But some Samaritans, who had slipped into Jerusalem,
scattered human bones in the porticoes and throughout the temple. As a result,
from then on, the priests excluded everyone from the temple [sanctuary].

Coponius returned to Rome and was succeeded by Marcus Ambivulus and then
Annius Rufus, during whose administration Caesar [Augustus] died at age 77,
having ruled 57 years. The third emperor4
was Tiberius, son of Caesar's wife Julia [Livia], who dispatched Valerius
Gratus to succeed Rufus as governor over the Jews. Gratus deposed Ananus from
the high priesthood and made three more changes before appointing Joseph
Caiaphas to the office. Having stayed eleven years in Judea, Gratus retired to
Rome and was succeeded by Pontius Pilate.

The tetrarch Herod,
meanwhile, had attained a high place among the friends of Tiberius. He built a
city on Lake Gennesaritis and named it Tiberias, settling a mixed population
there, mainly Galilean, as well as slaves whom he liberated. Their freedom was
on condition that they not move away, since the city was built on the site of
tombs, which would render the settlers unclean.

[The following
segments on Pontius Pilate and Jesus of Nazareth are not condensed but
translated word for word.]

Pontius Pilate Now when Pilate, the
governor of Judea, brought his army from Caesarea and moved it into winter
quarters at Jerusalem, he intended to subvert the Jewish customs by introducing
into the city busts of the emperor that were attached to the military standards
when our law forbids the making of images. For this reason, the previous
governors used standards that had no such ornaments whenever they entered the
city. Pilate was the first to bring these images into Jerusalem and set them up
there, doing so without the knowledge of the people because he entered at
night. But when they discovered it, the people went in a multitude to Caesarea
and for many days implored him to remove the images.

Statue of Tiberius, second Roman emperor
(Vatican museum). Augustus had selected 4 others to suceed himself rather than
his stepson, Tiberius, but they died before he did. A two-by-three-foot
stone, discovered at Caesarea in 1961, records the name of Pontius Pilate.
The left facing of the stone had been chipped away for reuse, so that only
"TIVSPILATVS" remains of Pilate's name in the middle line (Israel museum,
Jerusalem).

A section of the aqueduct constructed by Pontius
Pilate to improve Jerusalem's water supply. This segment runs at ground level
through an olive orchard near Bethlehem.

He refused to yield, since
to do so would be an insult to the emperor. But because they did not stop
appealing to him, on the sixth day he stationed his troops into position with
concealed weapons as he himself mounted the speaker's podium. This had been
constructed in the stadium, which hid the army that lay in wait. When the Jews
again petitioned him, he gave a prearranged signal to his soldiers to surround
them, and threatened to punish them with immediate death if they did not end
their riot and return to their own homes. But they threw themselves on the
ground and bared their throats, declaring that they would gladly welcome death
rather than dare to transgress the wisdom of their laws. Pilate, astounded at
the firmness of their guard-ing of the laws, immediately transferred the images
from Jerusalem to Caesarea.5

But he spent money from the sacred treasury
for the construction of an aqueduct to bring water into Jerusalem, tapping the
source of the stream at a distance of 200 stadia.6 They [the Jews], however, were not pleased
with what had been done about the water, and tells of thousands of men gathered
and shouted against him, insisting that he abandon such plans. Some of them
even hurled insults and abused the man, as such throngs commonly do. So he
ordered a large number of soldiers to be dressed in civilian clothing, under
which they carried clubs, and sent them so as to surround them [the
demonstrators], whom he ordered to withdraw. But when they boldly abused him,
he gave his troops the prearranged signal. They, however, inflicted much
greater blows than Pilate had ordered, punishing equally those who were rioting
and those who were not, showing no mercy in the least. Caught unarmed, as they
were, by men who had prepared their attack, many of them were killed on the
spot, while others ran away wounded. And so ended the uprising.7

Jesus

At
this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he
was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations
became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But
those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They
reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that
he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the
prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after
him, has not disappeared to this day.8

Scandals at Rome

Paulina, a virtuous lady of noble
descent at Rome, was married to the equally reputable Saturninus. But an
equestrian named Decius Mundus was so in love with her that he offered her
200,000 Attic drachmas if they could share a bed a single time. When she
refused, Mundus' freedwoman, Ida, bribed the priests of Isis - of whom Paulina
was a devotee - to inform her that the god Anubis had fallen in love with her
and invited her to share his table and bed at the temple, which she did. After
supper, when the doors were shut and the lights extinguished, a hidden Mundus
was not refused when he sought intercourse with her. Indeed, she performed a
night-long service for him, assuming that he was the god. Two days later, when
Mundus informed her that he had adopted the name Anubis and saved a substantial
sum to boot, she told her husband of the horror, and he informed the emperor.
Tiberius crucified both the priests and Ida, razed the temple, and ordered the
statue of Isis thrown into the Tiber. Mundus received only exile, because his
was a crime of passion.

The Jews of Rome suffered at this time. Four
Jewish scoundrels encouraged Fulvia, a woman of high rank who became a Jewish
proselyte, to send purple and gold to the temple in Jerusalem, which they
promptly stole for themselves. Fulvia's husband reported this to his friend,
Tiberius, who then banished the whole Jewish community from Rome. The consuls
drafted 4,000 of them for military service and sent them to the island of
Sardinia.

Pilate's Recall

The Samaritans too
were not exempt from troubles. A demagogue persuaded them to go with him to
Mount Gerizim, where he would show them the sacred vessels which Moses had
supposedly buried there. A great multitude arrived at the mountain armed, but
Pilate blocked their route of ascent with cavalry and heavily armed infantry.
In the clash that followed, some were killed and the rest scattered or taken
prisoner. Pilate then executed the ringleaders and those who were most
influential.

After the uprising was quelled, the Samaritan council
went to Vitellius, the governor of Syria, and accused Pilate of massacre.
Vitellius sent Marcellus, one of his friends, to take charge of Judea, ordering
Pilate to return to Rome and defend himself before the emperor against the
Samaritan charges. And so Pilate, having spent ten years in Judea, hurried to
Rome in obedience to Vitellius' orders, since he could not refuse them. But
before he reached Rome, Tiberius had already died.

Vitellius was
received magnificently in Jerusalem, where the Jews were celebrating the
Passover. He reduced some of the taxes and transferred the vestments of the
high priest from the Antonia to the temple. He also removed Joseph Caiaphas
from that office and appointed Jonathan, son of Ananus, in his place.

After his return to Antioch, Vitellius negotiated an agreement with Artabanus,
king of Parthia. This took place on a bridge over the Euphrates, after which
Herod [Antipas] the tetrarch feasted them in a luxurious pavilion. But Herod
rushed the news of the successful negotiations to Tiberius, preceding Viteihus'
report. Vitellius was furious with Herod and would get his revenge on the
accession of Gaius [Caligula].

Herod Antipas

Herod's brother, Philip, died at this time, a moderate ruler who dispensed
justice on an itinerant basis. Since he died childless, Tiberius annexed his
territory to the province of Syria. Herod himself now quarreled with Aretas
[IV], king of Petra, whose daughter he had married. But Herod had since fallen
in love with Herodias, wife of his half-brother [also named] Herod, and he
promised to marry her and dismiss Aretas' daughter. However, she heard about
the agreement, and asked Herod for permission to visit Machaerus. From there
she hurried on to her father in Arabia, and told him of Herod's plans. This and
a boundary dispute led Aretas to attack Herod, whose whole army was destroyed.
Herod wrote about this to Tiberius, who was furious, and ordered Vitellius,
governor of Syria, to declare war on Aretas.

[The following
segment is not condensed, but translated word for word.]

John the Baptist

Now, to some of the Jews the destruction of
Herod's army seemed to come from God as a very just recompense, a punishment
for what he did to John who was called the Baptist. For Herod had executed him,
though he was a good man and had exhorted the Jews to exercise virtue, both in
practicing justice toward one another and in piety toward God, and, so doing,
to join in baptism. For thus, it seemed to him, would baptismal washing be
acceptable, if it were used not to gain pardon for whatever sins they
committed, but as a purification of the body, implying that the soul was
already thoroughly cleansed by righteous conduct. When others also joined the
crowds about him- for they were deeply stirred at hearing his words - Herod
grew alarmed: such great influence over the people could lead to an uprising.
for they seemed ready to do anything John might advise. Accordingly, Herod
decided that it would be much better to strike first and get rid of him before
any insurrection might develop, than to get himself into trouble and be sorry
not to have acted once a rebellion had begun. And so. due to Herod's
suspicions, John was brought in chains to Machaerus, the fortress that we have
previously mentioned,9 and there put to
death. But the Jews believed that the destruction which overtook Herod's army
came as vengeance against Herod [for executing John], God wishing to do him
harm.10

Vitellius,
meanwhile, prepared for war against Aretas and was planning to march two
legions through Judea. But he rerouted their course after Jewish leaders
appealed that he not bring military standards bearing images on their soil. He
and Herod the tetrarch, however, offered sacrifice in Jerusalem, where they
received the news of Tiberius' death. This caused Vitellius to call off his war
with Aretas, and he returned to Antioch.

The island of Capri, where Agrippa and Caligula
waited for Tiberius to die. The imperial palace crowns the summit of the
precipice near the center.

Herod Agrippa and
Caligula

Agrippa was the son of the Aristobulus who had been
strangled by his father, Herod [the Great]. Agrippa had spent huge amounts of
money cultivating friends in Rome, and returned to Judea in poverty. He was
contemplating suicide until his sister Herodias and Herod the tetrarch gave him
a job as market-supervisor in Tiberias. Tiring of that, he borrowed great sums
and returned to Rome and the good graces of Tiberius, who had moved to the
island of Capri. Agrippa became a close friend of his young grandnephew Gaius
[Caligula]. One day, while they were out riding on Capri, Agrippa expressed the
hope that Gaius would soon succeed Tiberius as emperor, since he was much
worthier.

This was overheard by the chariot driver and
eventually reported to Tiberius, who angrily had Agrippa arrested. While he
waited in chains in front of the palace, a horned owl alighted on the tree on
which he was leaning. Another prisoner, a German, predicted that Agrippa would
soon be released and attain the highest point of honor and power. "But
remember," he continued, "when you see this bird again, your death will follow
within five days."

Antonia, Tiberius' sister-in-law, took a special
interest in Agrippa and tried to make him as comfortable as possible during the
six months he spent in prison. Then Tiberius died, having appointed Gaius as
his successor. One of Gaius' early acts was to put a diadem on Agrippa's head
and appoint him king over the tetrarchy of Philip. He also gave him a golden
chain equal in weight to the iron one that had bound him, and Agrippa returned
home in triumph.

Extremely jealous over the success of her brother,
Herodias prodded her husband Herod [Antipas] to embark for Rome and petition
for the kingship also. He resisted as best he could, but finally gave in, and
they sailed to Italy, where they met the emperor at Baiae. During their
interview, Gaius was reading letters from Agrippa, in which he indicted Herod
for conspiring with Sejanus, a Roman prefect, against Tiberius and for being in
alliance now with Artabanus of Parthia against Gains. As proof, Agrippa cited
70,000 pieces of armor stored in Herod's armories. Gaius asked whether the arms
were there, and when he received an affirmative, he took away Herod's tetrarchy
and added it to Agrippa's kingdom, banishing Herod to Lyons in Gaul.11 He would have permitted Herodias to return
and enjoy her property, but she chose exile with her husband.

Caligula's Statue

Meanwhile, the Jews and Greeks of Alexandria had engaged in civil
strife. Both sides sent three delegates to present their case before 02 Gaius,
who was now overcome with delusions of divinity. The Greeks' spokesman, Apion,
scurrilously attacked the Jews for neglecting to honor the emperor with altars,
statues, and temples as the rest of the empire had done. Philo, representing
the Jews, began his defense but was angrily cut off by Gaius, who would now
avenge himself on the Jews.

Bust of Gaius "Caligula" (Louvre, Paris). Caligula
was one of the worst of the Roman emperors, but his reign was mercifully short:
A.D. 37-41. His assasination ended months of debauchery, cruelty and terror at
Rome.

Gaius dispatched Petronius as legate of
Syria to succeed Vitellius, and ordered him to lead an army into Judea and set
up a statue of Gains inside the temple of God. When Petronius arrived with his
army at Ptolemais, he was met by many thousands of Jews who pleaded with him to
respect their laws and not erect the statue. He then went on to Tiberias, where
he received the same response from all the Jews They declared that they would
rather die than see their laws transgressed, and even now prepared to leave
their land untilled.

Struck by their resolve, Petronius decided to
risk Gaius' anger rather than drench the country in blood. Convening an
assembly of Jews in Tiberias, he told them that he would try to dissuade the
emperor from carrying out his plan. And if he failed, he would endure suffering
himself rather than see so many of them destroyed. He then told them to resume
their agriculture and dismissed the multitude, who invoked many blessings on
him. After returning to Antioch, he wrote to Gaius, reporting on his expedition
into Judea, and added that unless the emperor wished to destroy both the
country and its inhabitants, he ought to revoke his order.

King
Agrippa, meanwhile, had treated Gaius to a lavish dinner in Rome, after which
the emperor offered him any gift he desired. After declining repeatedly, he
interceded for the Jews and asked Gains not to erect his statue in Jerusalem.
The emperor acceded to the request, but when Petronius' letter arrived, he grew
irate again and ordered Petronius' suicide for being so slow in executing his
commands. Yet it so happened that the messengers carrying Gaius' dispatch to
Petronius were detained by stormy weather. However, later messengers,
announcing the subsequent death of Gaius, had a favorable voyage. So Petronius
marveled at the providence of God in not receiving Gaius' letter until nearly a
month after he had learned of his death.

[Here Joseph us
introduces a long description of the massacre of Mesopotamian and Babylonian
Jews by Parthians and Syrians.]

Gains' contempt of the Jews was
typical of what he inflicted on the entire Roman empire. He terrorized all
classes of citizens, putting some to death for their wealth, and insisted on
his own divinity, calling Jupiter "brother." He pillaged the Greek temples of
sculpture, and built a pontoon bridge across the gulf at Misname just for his
chariot. At the races, people shouted for a tax reduction, but Gaius had them
executed before the spectators. He even had sexual intercourse with his own
sister.

Three conspiracies attempted to assassinate him. One group
was at Cordova in Iberia, the second was led by the tribune Cassius Chaerea [at
Rome], and the third by Annius Vinicianus. Chaerea was particularly insulted by
the effeminate or obscene passwords Gaius would give him, and the reaction of
his men when he had to pass them on. Chaerea and his conspirators met him in an
alley that led to the palace baths and cut Gains down, in the fourth year of
his reign.

Agrippa and Claudius

Gaius' uncle,
Claudius, was kidnapped by praetorian guardsmen. who declared him emperor-they
distrusted democracy-but the Senate was ringing with oratory in favor of
liberty. and opposed the succession of Claudius. King Agrippa happened to be in
Rome at this time, and became a mediator between the praetorian camp and the
Senate. Find-ing that Claudius was perplexed and about to yield to the Senate,
he incited him to bid for the empire. Agrippa then went to the Senate and
diplomatically persuaded many of its members to withdraw their opposition to
Claudius' succession, while the soldiers moved the rest. Chaerea and several of
his accomplices were put to death, and Claudius became emperor.

Claudius (A.D. 45-54) was a much better emperor
than his crazed nephew Caligula. Although he had motor handicaps, he conquered
Britain and stabilized the government. But his fourth wife, Agrippina, poisoned
him with a bowl of mushrooms.

Claudius now confirmed Agrippa as king
and added to his domain Judea and Samaria as well-all the lands formerly ruled
by his grandfather. Herod [the Great] -but also Abilene which had been governed
by Lysanias. He then celebrated a treaty with Agrippa in the mididle Of the
Roman Forum. After this the king returned to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices of
thanksgiving in the temple, where he hung up the golden chain Gaius had given
him on his accession.

From such huge territories, Agrippa began to
amass great wealth. He spent some of it fortifying the north walls of
Jerusalem, and would have made them impregnable had not Marsus, the governor of
Syria, notified Claudius about it. Claudius, in turn, wrote Agrippa to stop
suspecting revolution. Marsus also broke up a gathering of kings whom Agrippa
was entertaining at Tiberias, greatly offending the king.

After his
third year of rule over all of Judea. Agrippa came to Caesarea to celebrate
games in honor of Caesar. For this occasion, a large number of men who held
office or rank in his kingdom had assembled. On the second day of the games. he
entered the theater at dawn, dressed in a garment of woven silver, which
gleamed in the rays of the rising sun. His flatterers at once started
addressing him as a god. 'May you be gracious to us!" they shouted!. "And if up
to now we've feared you as a man, from now on we agree that you're more than a
mortal!" The king did not censure them nor reject their flattery as impious.
But then he looked up and saw an owl perched on a rope overhead, recognizing it
immediately as a messenger of evil as it had once been of good. He felt a stab
of pain in his heart and an intense ache in his stomach. Jumping up, he cried,
"I, whom you call a god, am now under sentence of death!" They carried him into
the palace, where he died after five days of unremitting pain in his abdomen.
He was 54 years old and in the seventh year of his reign.12

The Procurators

Agrippa left three daughters, Bernice, Mariamme, and Drusilla, and one son,
Agrippa. Since the last was only seventeen, Claudius again reduced the kingdom
to a province, and sent Cuspius Fadus as procurator. Fadus punished some robber
bands in Judea, and ordered the high priest's vestments returned to the
Antonia. But the Jews sent envoys to Claudius, who countermanded that order,
allowing the Jews to keep the vestments.

The reconstructed theater at Caesarea, with the
Mediterranean in the background. The "Pilate" stone was discovered here, and
this is also the site of Herod Agrippa's sudden seizure preceding his death
five days later.

[At this point, Josephus introduces a
Iengthy report on the conver-sion of Helena, queen of Adiabene, and her son.
Izates, to Judaism. Both were buried near Jerusalem.]

An
impostor, named Theudas, persuaded the masses to take their possessions and
follow him to the Jordan, where, as a prophet, he would part the river and
provide them easy passage. Fadus, however, attacked them with his cavalry and
captured Theudas himself, whose head was cut off and brought to Jerusalem.

Tiberius Alexander succeeded Fadus as procurator, and he crucified James
and Simon, the sons of Judas the Galilean who had aroused the people to
rebellion when Quirinius was taking the census in Judea. Herod, the brother of
King Agrippa who ruled Chalcis, now died, and Claudius assigned his kingdom to
the younger Agrippa.

When Cumanus came as successor to Tiberius
Alexandler, an uprising occurred in Jerusalem at the Passover. One of his
troops who was standing on the porticoes of the temple for riot control
uncovered his genitals and showed them to the multitude.13 In rage, some of the people started hurling
stones at the soldiers, and Cumanus marched reinforcements to the Antonia. This
frightened the masses, and in their rush to escape through narrow exits, some
20,000 were trampled to death. So there was mourning instead of feasting.

Some of the revolutionaries then robbed Stephen, a slave of Caesar, as he
was traveling on a public highway, and Cumanus sent troops to sack neighboring
villages in retribution, One of them found a copy of the laws of Moses. which
he publicly tore in half while blaspheming. Infuriated, the Jews went to
Caesarea and asked Cumanus for vengeance in behalf of God, and he beheaded the
soldier who had outraged their laws.

At the time of a festival, the
Galileans regularly passed through Samaritan territory on the way to the Holy
City, but one group was attacked by Samaritans and many were killed. When the
Galileans protested to Cumanus, he did nothing to avenge them, having been
bribed by the Sarnaritans. So they took matters into their own hands and set
fire to some Samaritan villages. Cumanus then clashed with the rebels, killing
many, and the survivors were persuaded by magistrates from Jerusalem to lay
down their arms or bring Rome's ven-geance down on the nation.

The
Samaritan leaders appealed to Ummidius Quadratus, governor of Syria, and
demanded the punishment of those Jews who had ravaged their country. The Jews,
in turn, accused the Samaritans of creating the disturbance by committing
murder, and principally Cumanus, for taking bribes. Quadratus crucified the
Samaritan and Jewish rebels, and sent to Rome some of the leading Samaritans
and Jews to plead their case before Claudius Caesar, as well as Cunlanus and
Celer, his tribune. Claudius was about to decide in favor of the Sanlaritans
when Agrippa the Younger, who was in Rome, urged Agrippina, wife of the
emperor, to intercede. Claudius then heard the case more thoroughly and put the
Samaritan delegation to death, condemned Cumanus to exile, and ordered Celer to
be dragged around Jerusalem and put to death.

Claudius now sent
Felix, the brother of Pallas, to take charge of Judea, and removed Chalcis from
Agrippa but gave him the tetrarchv of Philip. Felix fell in love with Agrippa's
sister, Drusilla. who sur-passed all other women in beauty. He sent a Jewish
magician named Atomus to lure her away from her husband and into Felix's arms.
They married, and she gave birth to a son named Agrippa, who, with his wife,
were later buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Bernice, another sister of
Agrippa the Younger, was rumored to have had an affair with her brother.14

Bust of Nero (Uffizi,
Florence). Nero (A.D. 54-68) was tutored by the philosopher Seneca, but then
corrupted by associates. When the great fire of Rome blazed in A.D. 64 and Nero
was accused of starting it, he falsely blamed the Christians.

Nero, Felix, and
Festus

Claudius Caesar died after a reign of almost fourteen
years. He was poisoned by his wife, Agrippina, to insure the succession of
Nero, her son by a previous marriage, rather than Claudius' own son
Britannicus. Subsequently, Nero poisoned Britannicus and openly murdered his
own mother, Agrippina. But since many historians have written about Nero, I
will return to the fate of the Jews.

In Judea, where matters were going from bad
to worse, Felix had to capture impostors and brigands on a daily basis. When
the high priest Jonathan continually urged him to improve his administration.
Felix hired sicarii ["dagger-men," i.e. terrorists] to murder him. When they
remained unpunished, the sicarii boldly attacked their enemies with hidden
daggers, even in the temple area. This is why, in my opinion, God Himself
turned away from our city and brought the Romans upon us.

An Egyptian
impostor promised his followers to make the walls of Jerusalem fall down at his
command. Felix attacked them on the Mount of Olives and killed 400, taking 200
prisoners, although the impostor escaped. At Caesarea, a quarrel broke out
between Jews and Syrians over equal civil rights. The Jews claimed precedence
because Herod had founded the city, while the Syrians asserted that the place
had been Strato's Tower before Herod, without a single Jew living there. When
both sides started stoning each other, Felix intervened with his troops and
many Jews were killed. He then sent leaders of both parties to argue their case
before Nero in Rome.

When Porcius Festus replaced Felix, the Jewish
leaders accused the latter before Nero, and he would have been punished had not
his brother Pallas interceded. Festus, meanwhile, had to contend with the
sicarii who were plundering Judea, assorted impostors, and a newly erected
western wall of the temple which blocked Roman surveillance as well as
Agrippa's view. King Agrippa [II] had the right to appoint high priests, and
enjoyed watching what went on inside the temple as he dined high in the
Hasmonean palace to the west. The priests therefore built a high wall to block
his view, which both he and Festus ordered demolished, but they appealed to
Nero. Poppaea, Nero's wife, was sympathetic to the Jews and gained his
permission to let the wall stand.

Albinus and Ananus

Upon Festus' death, Caesar sent Albinus to Judea as procurator. But
before he arrived, King Agrippa had appointed Ananus to the priesthood, who was
the son of the elder Ananus.15 This elder
Ananus was extremely fortunate. For after he himself had been high priest for a
long period, he had five sons, all of whom achieved that office, which was
unparalleled. The younger Ananus, however, was rash and daring, and followed
the school of the Sadducees, who are heartless when they sit in judgment.

[The following paragraph is not condensed, but translated word for
word.]

Jesus' Brother James

Having such a
character, Ananus thought that with Festus dead and Albinus still on the way he
would have the proper opportunity. Convening the judges of the Sanhedrin, he
brought before them the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, whose name
was James, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law
and delivered them up to be stoned. But those of the city residents who were
deemed the most fair-minded and who were strict in observing the law were
offended at this. Accordingly, they secretly contacted the king [Agrippa II],
urging him to order Ananus to desist from any more such actions, for he had not
been justified in what he had already done.16 Some of them even went to meet Albinus, who
was on his way from Alexandria, and informed him that Ananus had no authority
to convene the Sanhedrin without his consent. Convinced by these words. Albinus
wrote in anger to Ananus, threatening him with punishment. And King Agrippa,
because of this, deposed him from the high priesthood, in which he had ruled
for three months, and replaced him with Jesus, the son of Damnaeus.17

Later, Agrippa appointed Jesus,
son of Gamaliel, as successor to Jesus, son of Damnaeus. These two high priests
feuded as a result, and their partisans hurled stones at each other, typical of
the lawless confusion in the city. When Albinus heard that Gessius Florus was
coming to replace him, he cleared the prisons by executing those who deserved
death. But he released - for a bribe - those guilty of lesser offenses, thus
infesting the land with brigands. He also stole private property, burdened the
nation with excessive taxes, and committed every sort of villainy.

Just now, too, the temple was finally completed, leaving 18,000 workers
unemployed, although they did pave Jerusalem with white stone.

[At
this point, Josephus lists the Jewish high priests from Aaron on.]

Conclusion of Jewish Antiquities

Gessius Florus, whom
Nero sent as successor to Albinus, made the latter look like a paragon of
virtue by comparison. Joining in partnership with the brigands to receive a
share of the spoils, he virtually paraded his lawless wickedness before the
nation. He stripped whole cities, ruined entire populations, and compelled us
to go to war with the Romans. The war, in fact, began in the second year of his
procuratorship and in the twelfth of Nero's reign. The details may be read in
the 66 books that I have written on The Jewish War.

Here, then, after
20 books and 60,000 lines, is the end of my Antiquities, which records Jewish
history in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine from man's creation to Nero's twelfth
year. It also contains all that the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians,
Macedonians, and Romans inflicted on us. No one else, either Jew or gentile,
would have been equal to this task. God-willing, I will in the future write of
the later events in our history up to the present day, which is the thirteenth
year of Domitian Caesar and the fifty-sixth of my life.18

1. Thus the version
in War. In Antiquities, it is Augustus himself who unmasks the impostor.

2. Probably at Qumran, the community at the
northwest corner of the Dead Sea, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in
1947.

3. The Annas of the New Testament
Gospels, who was high priest from A.D. 6 to 15

5. The shorter version of this
episode in War (2:169 ff), adds the detail that the military standards brought
into Jerusalem by night had also been covered or concealed and that the crowds
at Caesarea prostrated themselves motionless around Pilate's "house" (probably
Herod's palace for five days and nights. The ring of troops surrounding the
Jews at the stadium was also ''three deep."

6.
Almost 23 miles. The Greek stadion equates to 606.75 feet, about one-eighth of
a Roman mile. According to war 2:175, the distance was 400 stadia. The lower
number is far more likely, and probably refers to the so-called Lower Aqueduct
that brought water from Ain-Arrub in the hills of Hebron. - Whether Pilate
could have taken money from the temple treasury without complicity of the
Jerusalem priesthood is extremely doubtful. Probably this was a tacit agreement
between the two parties-the water, after all, fed the temple cisterns-and
surplus from the half shekel temple offerings could be used for "the
maintenance of the city wall and all the city's needs"-presumably
including water supplv, according to the tractate Shekalim 4:2 in the Talmud.

7. The shorter version of this episode in
War (2:175 ff.) defines the sacred treasury as the Corban, and records that
Pilate had ordered his troops not to use swords, and that the fleeing mob
trampled some of their compatriots to death.

8. This, the most famous passage in Josephus, is also the most
controversial. The standard text of Antiquities 18:63 reads as fellows: About
this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For
he was the achiever of extraordinary deeds and was a teacher of those who
accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was
the Messiah. When he was indicted by the principal men among us and Pilate
condemned him to be crucified, those who had come to love him originally did
not cease to do so; for he appeared to them on the third day restored to life,
as the prophets of the Deity had foretold these and countless other marvelous
things about him. And the tribe of christians, so named after him, has not
disappeared to this day. Although the passage is so worded as early as Eusebius
(c. AD 324), scholars have long suspected a Christian interpolation, since
Josephus would not have believed Jesus to be the Messiah or in his resurrection
and have remained, as he did, a non-Christian Jew. In 1972, however, Professor
Schlomo Pines of the Hebrew Universitv in Jerusalem announced his discovery of
an Arabic manuscript by the tenth-century Melkite historian Agapius, in which
this Josephan passage is expressed in a manner appropriate to a Jew, and which
corresponds so precisely to previous scholarly projections of what Josephus
originally wrote that it is substituted in the text above. While the final
sentence is not in Agapius, Pines justifiably concludes that it was in the
original Josephan text.

9. Machaerus, near the
northeastern corner of the Dead Sea, was one of the Maccabean-Herodian mountain
fortresses constructed or rebuilt by Herod the Great. It lay in Perea, the
trans-Jordanian territory which, with Galilee, fell under the jurisdiction of
Herod Antipas. The Gospels do not indicate where John was executed, but
Josephus clearly does so in this passage. Similarly, the New Testament does not
record the name of the "daughter of Herodias" whose dance secured John's
execution (Mark 6:22; Matthew 14:6), but Josephus gives it in another context
in which he discusses the Herodian dynasty: "Herodias ... had a daughter
Salome, after whose birth she undertook to flout the precepts of our fathers by
marrying Herod (Antipas), her husband's brother" (Antiquities 18:136).

10. The political motive for Herod executing John
is not mentioned in the New Testament, where John's moral strictures against
Herod are cited instead. The two, however, are by no means incompatible. It
should also he noted that John's memory was honored by Jews for a considerable
period after his death, since the defeat of Herod's army occurred five or six
years later.

11. According to War 2:183,
Herod Antipas was banished to Spain, where he died in exile. While Antiquities
has "Lugdunum [Lyons] in Gaul" as the place of exile, some scholars have
reduced the discrepancy by suggesting Lugdunum Convenarum as the site Josephus
had in mind, which is near the Pyrenees and Spanish border.

12. Another account of this scene occurs in Acts 12:20 ff.,
which accords well with Josephus' version but adds the detail that Agrippa was
seated on a throne and spoke to ambassadors from Tyre and Sidon.

13. Thus the version in Antiquities. In War, the
indecent soldier turned his backside to the Jews and broke wind.

14. Paul of Tarsus appeared before Herod Agrippa II and
Bernice at Caesarea. See Acts 25:13 ff., a context in which both Felix and
Festus appear as well.

16. Either in
convening the Sanhedrin without Albinus' permission, or in executing James, or
both.

17. The very probable authenticity of
this passage is discussed at the close of this chapter. The episode itself
forms a striking parallel to the events of Jesus' trial. Brother defendants
appear in both, condemnatory high priests and Sanhedrins appear in both, and
Roman governors inclined toward the defendants appear in both. A further
version of James' death appears in Hegesippus (as cited by Eusebius,
Ecclesiastical History 2:23), who also states that James was stoned to death.

18. AD 93-94. The envisioned work was never
completed. Although Josephus' earlier work, The Jewish War, is captioned at
this point for chronological purposes, introductory material in the War-more
than two books' worth-has already been coalesced into this condensation from
Antiochos Epiphanes' assault on the temple (c. 170 bc.) to this point. All
marginal references from here on are from The Jewish War.

Taken from Josephus: The Essential
Works, copyright 1994. Used by permission of Kregal
Publications Grand Rapids, MI 49501. You can order Josephus: The
Essential Works for a total of $24 by calling the Issues, Etc. resource
line at 1-800-737-0172.